FLIGHT International, 26 /une 1969
vehicle employs two seven-segment United Technology Centre
120in-diameter solid motors, each generating some 1.21b
million of thrust at take-off. A test motor was fired for the
first time last May. The Titan 3M vehicle is also man-rated
(the standard Titan 3 is not) and the first-stage core has been
extended by 10ft. A further modification is the reduced size of
the stabilisation-thruster fuel tanks, which are mounted on
the solid-propellant motor casings.
By early this year it was clear that the programme had
suffered a further slippage, the new schedule calling for first
manned launch in 1971/1972. With the advent of the Nixon
administration it was clear that MOL was a likely target for
cancellation. But at that time it seemed far more likely that
the projected future Apollo flights would be dropped, and
Mr Nixon has therefore done the opposite to what most
observers had expected.
MOL, at the time of its cancellation, was estimated to cost
$3,125 million, or about one-seventh the cost of the Apollo
programme. Of this $1,675 million has already been spent or
is earmarked for cancellation charges and rundown. Four
major contractors and countless smaller ones will be severely
hit. The Titan 3M, built by Martin Marietta, was specifically
developed for MOL and has no other stated application,
although it may well be taken over now as an economical
spacecraft launcher. The Gemini B capsules and the cylindrical
1071
laboratory were to be supplied by McDonnell Douglas, while
General Electric were responsible for the experiments.
Against Mr Nixon's understandable desire to make budget
reductions wherever possible was a powerful military lobby
pressing for continued expenditure on the project to maintain a
lead over Russian technology. It is therefore significant that
the decision to drop MOL was made, not by Congress, but
by the military. The most likely reason for this appears to
be that the 4-5 year's delay in getting the programme underway
has made it redundant, rapid increases in technology making
the space-station/reusable shuttle concept more immediate
and attractive.
Both MOL and AAP (the Apollo Applications Programme)
are very similar in concept, and it may be that a simplified
programme can be phased in with the civil orbiting laboratory
which is now scheduled for launch in 1972.
Possibly AAP might be extended from the present five
launches to allow some of the military objectives to be met.
albeit in a limited-inclination (non-polar) orbit.
It may be significant that the first major marriage of DoD
and NASA interests took place recently when plans for
joint study of a re-usable space shuttle were announced (Flight
May 15, 1969), and this may be the precursor to a joint
USAF/NASA space station. What is certain is that the
United States has not relinquished its military interest in space.
GERMAN-AMERICAN
SATELLITES
Agreements for two collaborative satellite projects were signed
in Bonn between Mr Gerhard Stoltenberg, the West German
Minister for Scientific Research, and Dr Thomas O. Paine.
NASA administrator, on June 10. The satellites will be designed
and built by the Federal Ministry for Scientific Research, but
will be launched by American rockets.
The first project is for an "aeronomy" satellite, which will
provide data to correlate the local upper-atmosphere density
and temperature of neutral and charged particles and solar
ultra-violet radiation at selected wavelengths. It will weigh 1751b
and will be placed in a Sun-synchronous, 180/480-mile orbit
by Scout rocket in 1972.
The second agreement embraces the very advanced Helios
(ex-ISOS) solar probe, two of which Will be built and flown to
Two studies for Helios were shown at the recent Paris
Air Show. Below, that of ERNO is a "cotton-reel" of
150kg weight, 2m high and 2.7m diameter, and was
shown half-scale. Right, the Messerschmitt-Bolkow-
Blohm model was one of the biggest satellites at the
show
fl within 28 million miles of the Sun. Each spacecraft will contain ten experiments, of which seven will be of German origin, the
others being provided by the NASA Goddard Space Flight
Centre. This particular agreement stems from the September
1966 discussions between Mr Stoltenberg and the then NASA
Administrator, Mr James E. Webb, on a possible advanced co
operative project of mutual interest. Following German feasi
bility studies, a joint American-German mission-definition
group was formed last year, and presented its report last April.
The objective of this programme is to provide a new under
standing of fundamental solar processes and Sun-Earth relation
ships by the study of the solar wind, magnetic and electric
fields, cosmic rays and interplanetary dust and micrometeoroids.
Previous interplanetary probes (such as Pioneers and Mariners)
have studied the region between Venus and Mars, in the plane
of the ecliptic (the average plane of rotation of the planets in
the solar system), but Helios will be flown much nearer to the
Sun and at high inclinations to the ecliptic.
The first satellite will be launched by Atlas-Centaur in 1974.
the second a year later.